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2019: WE NEED A TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION Commission in the US now for the Adoption Programs that stole generations of children... Goldwater Institute's work to dismantle ICWA is another glaring attempt at cultural genocide.

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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

NEW PROJECT by Two Worlds authors: Native Adoptee Anthology will document new journeys

Two Worlds was published in 2012

NEW ANTHOLOGY ANNOUNCED (2013)

Journalist-adoptee
Trace A. DeMeyer has announced that she is now collecting narratives
and essays from Native adoptees who are not yet in reunion and those in
reunion for a brand new anthology to be published this winter. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2013. Her friend and fellow adoptee Patricia Busbee has signed on as co-editor.

DeMeyer
was introduced to Cherokee adoptee Patricia Busbee by mutual friends,
and they collaborated on the first anthology, “TWO WORLDS: Lost
Children of the Indian Adoption Projects," which launched on Amazon and
Kindle in September 2012. (ISBN: 978-1479318285, Price: $19.95 16.95
(PAPERBACK), $6.99 (EBOOK). The lost children (adoptees) in this
anthology share intimate details of their personal lives, their search
for identity and family, and their feelings about what happened to them.

After
generations of Native children were forcibly removed from their Tribes
and placed in residential boarding schools in North America, thousands
upon thousands of Native children were also being placed in closed
adoptions with non-Indian families. Finding these children became
non-stop detective work for award-winning journalist Trace A. DeMeyer who started research in 2005 which
culminated in her memoir “One Small Sacrifice” in 2010. (An updated
second edition was published in 2012.)

“Because of both
books, I get emails from new adoptees nearly every day now. I explain
about the history of the Indian Adoption Projects and its successor
ARENA and how it was unofficially ethnic cleansing via adoption
assimilation, condoned and paid for by the US and Canadian governments
and several churches who operated programs to facilitate these
adoptions,” DeMeyer said. "Many times the adoptee tells me how they felt
very isolated and alone but could not share their need to search with
their adoptive family. I tell them about my search and reunion, offer my
help and introduce them to search angels."

Both DeMeyer and
Busbee agree that publishing “TWO WORLDS: Lost Children of the Indian
Adoption Projects” is an important contribution to American Indian
history but even more of this history needs to be published. Their book
has been chosen by Brock University in Canada for its BROCK READS
program in 2013-2014. They hope more universities will use it as part of
their curriculum.

“Two Worlds was really the first book to debunk
the billion dollar adoption industry that operated for years under the
guise of caring for destitute Indigenous children and "saving" them,”
DeMeyer said. “Very little is known or published on our history. Many of
these adoptees were children (not all were babies) and many were not
orphans but simply removed. We know states in the East were used as
destinations to remove children from the midwest and west - very far away
to make it difficult or next to impossible to find tribal family. With
sealed adoption files, it's a miracle many of them succeed at all.”

Their
first book covers the history of Indian child removals across the US
and Canada, the adoption projects, their impact on Indian Country and
how it impacts the adoptee and their families, Congressional testimony,
quotes, news and several narratives from adoptees in the US and Canada
in the 375-page anthology. The second anthology will include updates
from adoptees in their first book and new essays from new adoptees.

"I encourage adoptees who have
not found their tribal relatives to submit a photo and their birth
information, as much as they know, so we can help them find their
families and help them have a successful reunion. That is our goal with
this new book," DeMeyer said about the new untitled anthology.
"Watching the Baby Veronica saga, we hope that more Americans will
understand the impact of the Indian Adoption Projects and ARENA programs, and how the Indian Child Welfare Act was made federal law in
1978 because of our removals. Adoptees born prior to ICWA lived through
it and need to share their astonishing stories of survival."

Early
reader comments included: “…sometimes shocking, often an emotional
read…this book is for individuals interested in the culture and history
of the Native American Indian, but also on the reading lists of
universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched
and obviously a subject close to the heart of the authors/compilers, I
found the extent of what can only be described as ‘child-snatching’ from
the Native Americans quite staggering. It’s not something I was aware
of before…”

“The individual pieces are open and honest and
give a good insight into the turmoil of dislocation from family and
tribe… I think it does have value and a story to tell. I was affected by
the stories I read, and amazed by the facts presented…. because it is
saying something new, interesting and often astonishing.”

No comments:

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Please: Share your reaction, your thoughts, and your opinions. Be passionate, be unapologetic. Offensive remarks will not be published. We are getting more and more spam. Comments will be monitored. Use the comment form at the bottom of this website which is private and sent direct to Trace.

Survivors, write your stories. Write your parents stories. Write the elders stories. Do not be swayed by the colonizers to keep quiet. Tribal Nations have their own way of keeping stories alive.... Trace

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Please support NARF

Indian Country is under attack. Native tribes and people are fighting hard for justice. There is need for legal assistance across Indian Country, and NARF is doing as much as we can. With your help, we have fought for 48 years and we continue to fight.

It is hard to understand the extent of the attacks on Indian Country. We are sending a short series of emails this month with a few examples of attacks that are happening across Indian Country and how we are standing firm for justice.

Today, we look at recent effort to undo laws put in place to protect Native American children and families. All children deserve to be raised by loving families and communities. In the 1970s, Congress realized that state agencies and courts were disproportionately removing American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families. Often these devastating removals were due to an inability or unwillingness to understand Native cultures, where family is defined broadly and raising children is a shared responsibility. To stop these destructive practices, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

After forty years, ICWA has proven to be largely successful and many states have passed their own ICWAs. This success, however, is now being challenged by large, well-financed opponents who are actively and aggressively seeking to undermine ICWA’s protections for Native children. We are seeing lawsuits across the United States that challenge ICWA’s protections. NARF is working with partners to defend the rights of Native children and families.

where were you adopted?

To Veronica Brown

Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.

Join!

National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network (NISCWN)

Membership Application Form

The Network is open to all Indigenous and Foster Care Survivors any time.

ADOPTION TRUTH

As the single largest unregulated industry in the United States, adoption is viewed as a benevolent action that results in the formation of “forever families.” The truth is that it is a very lucrative business with a known sales pitch. With profits last estimated at over $1.44 billion dollars a year, mothers who consider adoption for their babies need to be very aware that all of this promotion clouds the facts and only though independent research can they get an accurate account of what life might be like for both them and their child after signing the adoption paperwork.

This has happened to many, many Native children! We must protect ICWA and enforce it so that it stops! Even non-Native families that are not racist cannot provide a Native child with cultural knowledge and belonging. Only their tribes can do that. #ProudtoProtectICWAhttps://t.co/oA1e5kiK4k

A4: Twenty-one states filed an amicus brief in this case in support of #ICWA. These states, which are home to over 70 percent of tribal nations, know that ICWA helps them better serve Native children and families.#ProudtoProtectICWA

TWO WORLDS Book 1 (second edition)

Two Worlds anthology (Vol. 1)

“…sometimes shocking, often an emotional read…this book is for individuals interested in the culture and history of the Native American Indian, but also on the reading lists of universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched and obviously a subject close to the heart of the authors/compilers, I found the extent of what can only be described as ‘child-snatching’ from the Native Americans quite staggering. It’s not something I was aware of before…”

“The individual pieces are open and honest and give a good insight into the turmoil of dislocation from family and tribe… I think it does have value and a story to tell. I was affected by the stories I read, and amazed by the facts presented…. because it is saying something new, interesting and often astonishing.”

Did you know?

Good words

I agree with you on the caring of “orphans” – true orphans, not “paper orphans” as Kathryn Joyce describes in her book, The Child Catchers. The most important thing to remember, however, is that the orphan’s original identity and family connection and heritage must remain intact and available to him or her forever. This business of adoption – and I do mean the multi-billion-dollar, unregulated business of adoption – of wiping out the child’s original identity, falsifying birth records with the adopters’ names, altering facts such as place of birth, severing familial kinship, must stop … Immediately. And the outrageous injustices foisted upon adoptees and their families for the past 100 years must be addressed and righted. We are faced today with six to seven million people who were basically legally kidnapped, sold to the highest bidder, their identities falsified, and placed in a lifelong, imposed witness protection program for which there is no legal recourse. Then told by church officials, agency and government functionaries that they have no right to know who they are, to do genealogy or learn about important family medical history, or know the identity of or associate with blood relatives. This is how the Judeo-Christian society has interpreted “caring for orphans”, for it’s own selfish interests and greed. Starting with Georgia Tann, the woman charged with kidnapping and selling 5,000 children, most of whom were given to the rich and powerful who then colluded with her to “seal” adoptions and cover their nefarious activities (see, for example, Gov. Herbert Lehman, NY, 1935).

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adoptees take back adoption narrative and reject propaganda

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